MOUNT RAINIER 



viting, are not to be despised. They have proved a 

 blessing to more than one party that has found itself 

 compelled to remain overnight on the summit, saving 

 them from death in the icy gales. 



That Mount Rainier should still retain so much of 

 its internal heat is not surprising in view of the recency 

 of its eruptions. It is known to have been active at 

 intervals during the last century, and actual record 

 exists of slight eruptions in 1843, 1854, ^58, and 1870. 

 Indian legends mention a great cataclysmal outburst 

 at an earlier period. 



At present the volcano may be regarded as dormant 

 and no apprehension need be felt as to the possibility 

 of an early renewal of its activity. The steam jets in 

 the summit crater, it is true, as well as the hot springs 

 at the mountain's foot (Longmire Springs), attest the 

 continued presence of subterranean fires, but they are 

 only feeble evidences as compared with the geysers, 

 the steam jets, and the hot springs of the Yellowstone 

 National Park. Yet that region is not considered any 

 less safe to visit because of the presence of these ther- 

 mal phenomena. 



In spite of Mount Rainier's continued activity until 

 within the memory of man its sides appear to have 

 been snow clad for a considerable length of time. 

 Indeed, so intense and so long-continued has been the 

 eroding action of the ice that the cone is now deeply 

 ice-scarred and furrowed. Most of its outer layers, 

 in fact, appear already to have been stripped away. 

 Here and there portions of them remain standing on 

 the mountain's flanks in the form of sharp-crested 

 crags and ridges, and from these one may roughly 

 surmise the original dimensions of the cone. Mere 

 details in the volcano's sculpture, these residual masses 

 are, some of them, so tall that, were they standing 

 among ordinary mountains, they would be reckoned 

 as great peaks. Particularly noteworthy is Little 

 Tahoma, a sharp, triangular tooth on the east flank, 



206 



